Not only were shops along the High Street shut, but the city's main bus operator Stagecoach Devon had to re-route their buses causing traffic delays.

[12] A team of about twenty specialists (including forensic officers, intelligence experts and detectives) from Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism branch SO15, was brought in to help the Devon and Cornwall Police with their investigations.

[14] Nicky Raymond Reilly (later known as Mohamed Abdulaziz Rashid Saeed-Alim), aged 22, was born in Plymouth, where he lived with his mother, Kim.

[16] After his conversion to Islam, he changed his name[4] and came under the influence of Pakistani religious extremists,[17] who radicalised him into detonating the nail bomb in Exeter.

[19] On 15 October 2008, Reilly pleaded guilty to charges of attempted murder and preparing a terrorist attack.

[17] Information released after his guilty plea revealed that Reilly was obsessed with martyrdom and wanted to cause as much death and injury as possible.

It concluded that Reilly was found hanged from a light fitting in his cell and that it was likely that he acted impulsively without the intent to kill himself.